Welcome to Mentor Training for

People and their roles Heather Davies – Programme Director Caroline Lundy – GEB Programme Tutor Jo Traunter – BA Education and Early Years Theresa Brentnall – GEB Placement Tutor Helen Dent – GEB Placement Tutor Bernadette Cooley – UG Placement Tutor

Objectives To gain knowledge and an understanding of the Early Years Teacher processes and procedures To understand the expectations of the University in supporting Early Years Teacher trainees

The role of a mentor is… to work alongside the trainees so that their skills can be developed in a supportive environment to provide opportunities for them to reflect on the many aspects of the teaching and learning process to encourage the trainee to analyse his/her own progress and to identify steps to ensure continuing progress

A 'good' mentor……………….. Has empathy Offers flexible support, guides and becomes a critical friend Gives regular practical and constructive feedback Promotes and nurtures trainees’ thinking Supports trainees’ learning Offers balanced and objective formal observations Promotes participants to develop their own style Is conscious of early limitations and is sensitive to these Is aware of Teachers’ Standards (Early Years) and assessment requirements Is able to tackle difficult issues sensitively

Teachers’ Standards (Early Years) Trainee teachers must be trained to teach across the Early Years Foundation Stage (from birth to 5 years old) They must also understand how early education links to education beyond age 5 and into key stages 1 and 2 in school 8 Teachers’ Standards (Early Years) The programme runs parallel to our ITT programmes

Age related standards EYITT requires experience across 3 age ranges babies, toddlers and young children. Trainees do not need to cover every aspect of every standard with all ages. Standards 2 and 5 do require experience across the age ranges

Programme documentation Training record – all pathways Training record Lesson observation forms – all pathways Lesson observation forms Teaching Development profile – GEB and from Year 2 UG Teaching Development profile Grading guidance – pen portraits

Expectations and opportunities Weekly meeting Regular observations with feedback Opportunities to address standards within the setting Opportunities to develop / lead Opportunities to observe experienced staff Mutually beneficial in developing practice

Lesson Observation Observations can take various forms and do not need to be a 'script' of the whole lesson / activity. Lesson observation proforma: Lesson observation form

Feedback The goal: to encourage the trainee to assess the effectiveness of their practice to help them identify factors that contributed to, and interfered with, children’s learning to encourage them to consider how different teaching styles could be employed to encourage engagement of the children to review progress, reflecting back and planning forward, target setting (linked to ongoing completion of the Training Record) to sensitively handle any issues or concerns of the trainee

Probe understanding with open ended questions Examples may include: how do you think the lesson / activity went? why do you think it went the way it did? how do you know that was the reason? were there any surprises? if you had to do this again would you do anything differently? how can you apply what you learnt today to future learning opportunities? what conclusions can you draw from the way the session went?

Target setting Agreed and discussed with trainee Related to standards General Subject specific – what does this mean for early years? Impact

Grading criteria – ‘pen portraits’ Use as ongoing evaluation of progress Where is document available Highlight and use  For discussion re trainees progress  To set targets – a working document  To give an idea of where evidence may be found  Pen portraits Pen portraits

Please discuss evaluation of the programme so far:  What could we do to improve?  What information /support would be helpful?  What can we offer? Evaluate!

Thank you for working with us! Many thanks for….. your time your ongoing support working in partnership with us